System, method and computer program product for shared user tailoring of websites

ABSTRACT

Users create, share, and build collaboration communities around tailored versions of the functional pages of a web site, such as the pages used to select and purchase products, or the pages used to present course materials in an online-learning site. The tailored versions of the web site are stored at the common web site development web site or at another server side location. Users access the tailored versions to select a tailored version for their own use and/or modification.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to web site design and development and, moreparticularly, to a method and system for allowing collaborativedevelopment of web sites.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The design and implementation of web sites, in particular complex websites intended for use by large numbers of users such as mainstreamcommercial and business web sites, is a complicated and costly process.Because people differ in their tastes, skill levels, and habits, only afraction of potential users may prefer a given web site design whenmultiple web site design choices are made available. For example, asimple web site design may be preferred by newcomers, but found to befrustrating to use by experienced users. Or, an extremely visual designmay be ideal for users with visual cognitive styles but difficult to usefor those with limited vision or with narrative cognitive styles. Knownsolutions to the problem of varied user characteristics include offeringmultiple specially-created versions of the web site (at acorrespondingly multiplied cost in design and implementation), andallowing users to personalize or customize the visual appearance of thesite for themselves and then to store the customized designs on theirpersonal computers (i.e., on the client side of the web). But since mostusers are not interested in becoming web-site designers and becausevisual appearance is only one part of the overall site experience, thosesolutions are of limited benefit.

Low-cost solutions to other Net related and Web related informationdesign problems have been achieved by leveraging user-created design ororganizational information. The Google™ search engine, for instance,rather than using a specifically-organized hierarchy of web pages bysubject (as attempted by the Yahoo!® and dmoz systems), allows thelogical structure of the Web to emerge from the links that page authorscreate between pages (S. Brin and L. Page, “The anatomy of a large-scalehypertextual Web search engine,” In Proceedings of the 7th World WideWeb Conference, pages 107-117, 1998). The flickr online photo-sharingcommunity uses user-entered “tags” rather than a pre-designed set ofcategories to allow users to structure the photographs on the site.Various portal sites, such as “Yahoo!®” and “My AOL™”, allow each userto create a personalized “portal” page for which the user selects theset of information items that the page may contain (from a list ofpreset available items), and selects some aspects of the page'sappearance (such as the ordering or placement of the information items,the background color used, and the like); this portal page is presentedto the user each time he enters the site. Several existing publicationsdescribe mechanisms for site owners to change the content or appearanceof their web site, or to allow site users to customize the visualappearance of a page for their own use (see, for instance, Percival—USPublished Patent Application No. 2004/0039795, Hewett—US PublishedPatent Application No. 2002/0103856, Croney—US Published PatentApplication No. 2004/0268228, Kowtko—US Published Patent Application No.2002/0065877, Bier—US Published Patent Application No. 2002/0073125,Hillar—US Published Patent Application No. 2002/0046245, and Robert—USPublished Patent Application No. 2003/0065638), or to allow site usersto add content to the site (as in “Wiki” style systems; see for instance“Corporate Collaboration with TWiki”, WEB Techniques, v. 5, n. 12, pp.51-55, December 2000). Some of these known methods include allowing theexport in other formats of site content (as in many Wiki-style systems)or of user customization properties (as in Croney—US Published PatentApplication No. 2004/0268228). But none of these solutions allow usersto create, share, and build collaboration communities around tailoredversions of the functional pages of a web site (such as the pages usedto select and purchase products, or the pages used to present coursematerials in an online-learning site).

Other solutions have been of limited scope. Various computer programssuch as the WinAmp™ media player and the Mozilla™ web browser allow theuser to create and apply “skins” and “plugins” to change the appearanceand function of the program, thus effectively offloading some aspects ofthe program's design onto the user community. This type of “skinning”,however, applies to individual computer programs rather than to websites. Web browser accessories such as the “Greasemonkey” program forthe Mozilla™ web browser allow the user to alter the data that isreceived from a web site, in order to change the user's experience ofthe site as viewed through the browser. But because Greasemonkey scriptsare stored and applied at the client side, they are negatively impactedby changes to the server-side design of the site (and are therefore muchless reliable than tailoring done at the server side), and they are notunder the control of the owners of the site.

Thus, there is a need for a system and method of providing tailored website versions to a requesting user in accordance with one or morecriteria, including the web site design skill level of the requestinguser.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a first non-limiting aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a system for allowing shared user tailoring of web sitescomprises a mechanism for a plurality of site users to create or modifytailored versions of the website, the tailoring comprising one or moreof modifications: to the set of pages that appear on the web site, tothe appearance of a plurality of pages on the web site, and to thefunction of a plurality of pages on the web site.

In a second non-limiting aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a method for implementing a web site, comprising presenting aplurality of web site implementation options to a user, wherein at leastone of the plurality of web site implementation options includes atleast one filter; upon the user selecting the at least one filter,applying the at least one filter to provide the subset of the pluralityof tailored versions of a web site; selecting one of the tailoredversions of the web site; and implementing the selected tailored versionof the web site by allowing the user at least one of using the web siteand modifying the web site.

In a third non-limiting aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a signal bearing medium tangibly embodying a program ofmachine-readable instructions executable by a digital processingapparatus to perform operations to allow a user to create, modify anduse tailored versions of a web site, the operations comprisingdetermining if a user has selected a tailored version of a web site; ifit is determined that the user has selected a tailored version of a website, loading selected elements of the tailored version; if it isdetermined that the user has not selected a tailored version of a website, loading default tailored elements; generating at least one webpage dynamically using the loaded elements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further aspects of the instant invention may be more readily appreciatedupon review of the detailed description of the embodiments includedbelow when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, ofwhich:

FIG. 1A is a block diagram of an embodiment of a system of the presentinvention;

FIG. 1B is a block diagram of another embodiment of a system of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating an embodiment of a method of thepresent invention;

FIG. 3 is an embodiment of an exemplary web page fragment to present auser with a list of available tailored versions;

FIG. 4 is an embodiment of an exemplary web page fragment to present auser with information and other functions relating to a particulartailored version of a web site;

FIG. 5 is an embodiment of a exemplary web page fragment to allow a userto create and modify tailored versions of the web site;

FIG. 6 is an embodiment of an exemplary web page fragment to allow auser to save a tailored version of the web site;

FIG. 7 is an embodiment of a method for selecting a tailored version ofa web site by a user;

FIG. 8 is another embodiment of a method for selecting a tailoredversion of a web site by a user; and

FIG. 9 is an embodiment of a method for modifying a web site by a user.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The exemplary embodiments of this invention allow a user to create,share, and build collaboration communities by sharing tailored versionsof the visual and functional pages of a web site (such as the pages usedto select and purchase products, or the pages used to present coursematerials in an online-learning site). The exemplary embodiments of thisinvention may be used with an open source community as an example ofleveraging a large community of users and volunteer developers toeconomically develop a web site. Users may create their own tailoredversions of the entire site, encompassing both visual experience (suchas graphical user interfaces—GUIs) and functional organization, andshare those tailored versions with each other and with users who are notthemselves interested in doing their own customization. This effectivelyoffloads some of the work of web site design onto the user community,leading to a number of advantages. Since the tailored versions of theweb site are designed by users, they reflect the actual needs of atleast some real users, rather than reflecting the often inaccurateassumptions about user needs made by the site owners or professionaldesigners. Because new tailored versions may be created at any time, theavailable versions of the site may also track changes in user needs orpreferences. As users create the tailored versions for themselves andfor each other, and then share them with potentially many other users, alarge number of designs may be made available at little or no additionalcost per design. And, the activity of creating and sharing versions ofthe web site design, and the social interaction that the activityaffords, may increase the users temporal and/or financial investment inthe web site. The present invention allows web site owners to leveragethe user community to improve the design of their web sites. Anotheradvantage of the present invention is that it allows web site designersto share their designs with others, and to use their design skills onweb sites that they do not themselves own or control.

The accompanying diagrams illustrate exemplary embodiments of thisinvention.

The term “mechanism,” as used throughout this specification, refers tosoftware code, firmware code, a process, a hardware element, a softwareelement, a firmware element, an apparatus, a device, a software program,a software subroutine, a special purpose circuit, a general purposecircuit, or any combination of these. For example, a mechanism may be aset of software modules under the control of a main software programresident on the server.

The term “web site,” as used throughout this specification, refers to agroup of web pages in which one or more web pages of the group may havehyperlinks to other web pages of the group in which the group of webpages is maintained and made accessible by an individual or an entitysuch as a company, educational institution, government, etc.

FIG. 1A is a block diagram of a system embodying this invention: a webserver 101 communicates via the Internet 102 typically with a pluralityof client computers 103 used by users and administrators of the system,in order to allow them to interact with the hosted web site. A user maybe presented with web site implementation options from which to chooseto allow him or her to select and then tailor and/or use a web site. Theweb server 101 is also coupled to a server side tailoring database DB118 containing descriptions of tailored versions of the web site, and aserver-side usage database DB 119 containing data on the past usagepatterns of the web site by various users, and may also includeexpressed preferences of those users. The tailored website versionscreated, modified, accessed, and used may be versions of a plurality ofweb sites, rather than only a single web site, in which case, one servermay control multiple web sites or multiple servers may control multipleweb sites. In order to maintain quality control of the tailored websites and facilitate the development of a collaboration community aroundcustomized or tailored versions of the functional pages of the web site,tailored versions are preferably stored in server side storage, such asa computer readable medium (e.g., disk, tape, and/or semiconductormemory) or other signal bearing medium tangibly embodying a program ofmachine-readable instructions executable by a processor to performoperations to allow a user to create, modify and use tailored versionsof the web site.

FIG. 1B is a block diagram of another embodiment of a system of thepresent invention in which the client 103 and server 101 of FIG. 1A areshown in greater detail in an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment. Theclient 103 includes components such as a processor 104, an input device108 (e.g., a keypad), a display 109, a memory 107, and a communicationsinterface 106. Client 103 shows these components to communicate witheach other through an internal bus 105. The server 101 includescomponents such as a processor 110, an input device 115, a display 114,a communications 113, and controllers 111, 112 which may becommunicatively coupled through an internal bus 116. Controller A 111may be dedicated to storing and retrieving tailoring information from atailoring database DB 118. The tailoring database DB 118 may containinformation regarding each tailored version of a web site, includingdesign elements and functional information. Controller B 112 may bededicated to storing and retrieving information from a usage database DB119. The usage database DB 119 may contain information regarding usagepatterns of individual users, analyses of collective user behaviors andpreferences, accounting information, remuneration information, userprofiles, and the like. The communications interfaces 106, 113 of theclient and server communicate through an internet or World Wide Web.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of a method for modifying a web site bya user. A plurality of information streams and request and commandmechanisms used in the operation of the web site may be made availableover the Web 102 in machine-readable or computer readable form, as shownin step 901 of FIG. 9. These mechanisms may include programmatic access902, 903 to those information streams and request and command mechanismsin the object being modified or created for a site user creating ormodifying an appearance of a tailored version of the website or aportlet or other design element. In order to facilitate the creation ofa modified version of a web site, and of portlets and other designelements for use in modified versions, some embodiments of thisinvention include mechanisms to provide programmatic access, 904, 905 tovarious information streams and command and request channels involved inthe function that the web site performs. These information streams andrequest and command mechanisms may be in a variety of formats,including, for example, eXtensible Markup Language (XML) syndicationformats such as Rich Site Summary (RSS), Outline Processor MarkupLanguage (OPML), Web Distributed Data eXchange (WDDX), ResourceDescription Framework (RDF), and Atom. Programmatic access to theinformation streams, such as, for example, search results, site news,weather reports, and the like, may be provided through mechanisms suchas simple http transport (e.g., as used by the JavaScript®XmlHttpConnection object), and other mechanisms. These mechanisms allowusers to create tailored versions of the web site by modifying theappearance and/or function of the entire web site or some functionalsubset of it (FIG. 5). For example, these modifications may range fromrelatively simple ones made available to inexperienced users, such aschanging colors or type-faces, re-positioning design elements or windowson the page, scaling design elements and/or design content (e.g., forvisually impaired users), or moving elements from page to page. Moresophisticated users may be offered the ability to write their own stylesheets (in, for example, the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) language orJavaScrip®), their own HyperText Markup Language (HTML) templates, theirown JavaScrip®) programs to be included on the modified pages, and thelike. Users may be able to create their own design elements that may beput onto and moved between pages of the modified web site, includingdesigning new portlets (Web-based design and functional elements thatmay request, receive, and display specialized information on a web site)with technologies such as the WebSphere™ Portal Server available fromthe assignee of this patent application. These modified versions of theweb site may be created by various means, including interaction with theweb site's customization mechanisms via a web-based front end throughthe browser, interaction with standard Web design tools and uploadingthe result to the web site, interaction with a special client programprovided by the web site, and the like. At least some of the users whoare offered the ability to modify the appearance and/or function of theweb site 906 are also offered the ability to save their modifications907, 908, typically, by giving the modified version of the web site aname by which it may later be accessed. If there is to be no save,processing of the method ceases to be performed 909.

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a method of the present invention inwhich a user may access the tailored versions through a thumbnailpresentation 702, a list of available tailored versions 703, or, througha narrowing down of candidates by the use of one or more filters 704.The present invention is well suited for providing a user withindividually accessible tailored versions of a web site. In alternateembodiments, the modified versions of the web site may be made availableby a variety of means, including merely allowing the user to see a listof the currently available modified versions, with their names and shortdescriptions, on a web page and selecting one to use, by ordering theavailable modified versions by popularity, by submitting naturallanguage or key word queries, through behavioral heuristics of the user,by cookies, by manually input criteria (e.g., wish lists), by organizingthe available modified versions into hierarchies by theme and style, byallowing the creator of the modified version and potentially other usersto “tag” each modified version with ad-hoc textual tags and allowingusers to search and browse the available modified versions according tothe assigned tags, and the like. In FIG. 7, the web sites may bedisplayed as thumbnails such that a user may select a given web site byselecting the corresponding thumbnail by pressing a correspondingselection icon, such as a graphic button 702 from display option 701. InFIG. 7, the web sites may be displayed as a list, such as shown in FIG.3. This list option may be selected by pressing a correspondingselection icon, such as graphic button 703. A filter system is alsoprovided, such as through graphic button 704. Other graphic buttons,such as exit button 705, may be included. A filter sub-menu 706 may bedisplayed for a user to select one or more filters to narrow down a poolof tailored versions from tens, hundreds, or more, to a reasonable few.Possible filters include tailored version popularity 707, most recentlyused tailored versions 708, user behavioral heuristics 709, user enteredkeywords 710, user skill level 711, 712, and 713, and the like.Popularity may be determined through a rating scheme. If a rating schemeis used for ranking, the rating may be determined as a user averagerating, a user median rating, an average of the middle percentage (e.g.,80%) of user ratings, a user average rating of what is determined to bea pool of similar users, an average of professional reviewers, or thelike. Alternate embodiments of this invention may include onlinemechanisms to allow users to announce and discuss the modified versionsof the web site and/or web site elements (the portlets or other designelements) that they have created and made available. Selection offilters may be accomplished in various alternate manners, including, asa non-limiting example, by checking and/or unchecking filter selectionboxes in which case all selected filters are applied at once. Once auser has selected the desired filters, he or she may then apply thefilter(s) 715, through an optionally demarcated window 714. These onlinemechanisms for announcement and/or discussion may include theabovementioned textual “tags”, as well as discussion forums and commentthreads and other discussion mechanisms known to the art, qualityratings of the available modified versions, and the like. In anembodiment, announcements may also be made through the transmission ofemail alerts to collaborative community members.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating the control flow of a method whena user logs into (identifies himself to) the web server 101 (e.g., byuser name and password or access code) for the purpose of making use ofthe functions, such as purchasing goods, accessing information, and thelike, that the web site provides. This method is preferably implementedthrough server side computer readable medium or other signal bearingmedium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructionscapable of being executed or interpreted. At user entry step 201, theuser logs into the website by providing a login name and password,biometric input, voice recognition, and/or other method, by which thesystem comes to know the identity (or at least the currently-claimedidentity) of the user. The user's identity is then used at userselection decision step 202 to determine whether or not this user has inthe past selected to use a particular tailored version of the site, asrecorded in usage database DB 119. If the user has not done so, then atstep 203 a set of default tailoring elements is loaded from thetailoring database DB 118. If the user has selected to use a particulartailored version of the site, then the tailoring elements correspondingto that version are loaded at load selection step 204 from the tailoringdatabase DB 118. Generation step 205 then represents additionalinteractions between the user and the web site, in the course of whichthe tailoring elements loaded at either steps 203 or 204 are used todynamically render web pages for the user. In this non-limitingembodiment of the invention, the tailoring elements include one or moreof portlet definitions, page and portlet templates, cascading stylesheets, and JavaScript programs. Other embodiments may make use of theseand/or other suitable tailoring elements known to those of ordinaryskill in the art.

In an alternate embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8, a method forimplementing a web site optionally, when starting 801, may first verifya user 802. If the user information is verified 803, the user ispresented with a plurality of web site implementation options 804, suchas via a menu to narrow down candidate tailored versions of the web site706 or displaying thumbnail images of tailored versions of the web site805, displaying a list of tailored versions 807, or filtering 809. Ifthe user information is not verified, the execution of the method isstopped 811. In another alternative embodiment, the user may beimmediately presented with the plurality of web site implementationoptions without verification; that is, the user may access the web sitewithout identifying himself or herself and without a verification step.If the user selects the web site implementation option for providingthumbnail images of the available tailored versions of the website 805,up to a screen full of such thumbnail images may be displayed 806. Ifthe user selects the web site implementation option for listing thenames and/or descriptive information about the available tailoredversions 807, a list may then appear 808. It is to be understood thatthe list or thumbnail image display may be multi-paged in which casescrolling may be implemented before a selection is made. At least one ofthe plurality of web site implementation options may be a filter orgroup of filters to present a subset of tailored versions of the website 809. If the user selects one or more filters 810, these filters maybe used to reduce the number of tailored versions of the web site toprovide a subset of tailored versions of the web site to the user. Suchfiltering may reduce the number of tailored versions from tens orhundreds to a reasonable few. The user then may select one of the subsetof tailored versions of the web site implementation. In the preferredembodiment, server side computer readable media or other signal bearingmedium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructionsexecutable by a processor is preferably used to store the software orfirmware code of the web site being tailored.

The present invention lends itself to remuneration of the web siteowner(s). Making some aspects of, or utilities for, web sitemodification available for a fee (or as part of a premium sitemembership) to especially motivated or enthusiastic users may also serveas a revenue stream for the site. A mechanism may be provided for makingsome aspects of web site modification, and/or some utilities and/orsample programs for use in creating modified versions of the web site,available for a fee (e.g., through PayPal®), or available only to“premium” site members as an incentive to become a member. Embodimentsof this invention may offer rewards, in the form of payment, increasedsite access, or other forms, to those users who create the most popular,or otherwise most beneficial, modified versions of the site or designelements for other users to use.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary and non-limiting example of a web page fragmentused in an embodiment of this invention to present the user with a listof available tailored versions of a web site. The introductory text 301explains the function of the page to the user. The graphic buttons 302allow the user to sort the list 303 of available tailored versions ofthe web site by most recently modified, most popular, highest-ratedaccording to user selected criteria, or the like. Alternatively, thegraphic buttons 302 may allow filtering of the available tailoredversions of the web site such that a subset of the tailored versions ofthe web site is presented to the user. Instead of buttons, options maybe presented in other formats, such as in a menu or manually input datafields. The list 303 presents basic information about each availabletailored version, and allows the user to access details about a versionby clicking on its name. Numerous other possible layouts and detailedfunctions of such a page may be evident to those of ordinary skill inthe art, including sorting the list by how highly-rated a version is byusers with similar usage patterns to those of the current user asrecorded in the database DB 105, or by sorting the list on the flyaccording to criteria input by a user to select another tailored website version.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary and non-limiting example of a web page fragmentused in an embodiment of this invention to present the user withdescriptive information relating to a particular tailored version of aweb site. The introductory text 401 explains the function of the page tothe user. The information section 402 presents the user with basicinformation on the version as stored in the tailoring database DB 118and links to other related information such as the profile of the authorof the version and a description of the version's type. The functionalsection 403 allows the user to select this version of the web site foruse, to express his opinion of this version by reporting a numericalrating, and to link to a discussion forum where users of the sitediscuss this version. Numerous other possible layouts and detailedfunctions of such a page may be evident to those of ordinary skill inthe art.

FIG. 5 is an exemplary and non-limiting example of a web page fragmentused in an embodiment of this invention to allow a user to create andmodify tailored versions of the web site. The links on the page lead toother pages that enable specific tailoring tasks. A user is permitted tocreate a new version of a web site, define and modify web site pages,define and modify portlets (Web-based design and functional elementsthat may request, receive, and display specialized information on a website), and work with style sheets. Numerous other possible layouts anddetailed functions of such a page may be evident to those of ordinaryskill in the art.

FIG. 6 is an exemplary and non-limiting example of a web page fragmentused in an embodiment of this invention to allow a user to save atailored version of the web site. The information area 601 allows theuser to specify the name, type, and long description of the tailoredversion of the web site. The graphic buttons 602 allow the user toperform tasks such as viewing the information page about the version (asin FIG. 4) as it may appear once the version is saved, to save theversion for others to use, and to save the version temporarily withoutpublishing it for others. Numerous other possible layouts and detailedfunctions of such a page may be evident to those of ordinary skill inthe art. For incidences where multiple users simultaneously tailor thesame version of a web site, resolution determining software mayreconcile the edits to form a unified version or lead to the automaticcreation of alternative versions.

Alternate embodiments of this invention may include mechanisms to directaid some users toward those modified versions of the web site that aremost likely to appeal to them. For example, a web site may be programmedto determine usage patterns of each user (stored in usage DB 105) andrecommend those modified versions that have proven most popular withother users whose usage patterns are similar. The authors of modifiedversions of the web site, and other users, may be permitted to mark eachmodified version of the web site according to the user type that themodified version is intended for. User type may be categorized in avariety of manners including skill level, personal style, cognitivestyle, sensory capabilities, and the like. Skill level may include“newcomer” (or beginner), “intermediate,” and “power user” (oradvanced). Cognitive style may include “visual learner” and “narrative.”A user may be characterized through multiple user types. The versionmarks may be combined with user entered information, processordetermined usage patterns by a user, self-descriptions entered into userprofiles, and other information about each individual user to determinewhich modified versions of the website to recommend to that user.

Furthermore, alternate embodiments of this invention may allow themodifications created and shared by users in a collaborative communityto be applied to multiple related web sites, so that if a user choosesto use a particular modified version of one of the web sites, the sameor similar modifications may also apply, either automatically ormanually selectably per a list of options, when that same user visits arelated site.

In general, the various embodiments may be implemented in hardware orspecial purpose circuits, software, logic, or any combination thereof.For example, some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while otheraspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executedby a processor, such as a controller, microprocessor or other computingdevice, although the invention is not limited thereto. While variousaspects of the invention may be illustrated and described as blockdiagrams, flow charts, or using some other pictorial representation, itis will understood that these blocks, apparatus, systems, techniques ormethods described herein may be implemented in, as non-limitingexamples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits orlogic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computingdevices, or some combination thereof. In addition, it can be appreciatedthat the individual steps of the logic flow diagram of FIG. 2 may beviewed as well as interconnected functional blocks that are implementedin hardware, or as hardware and software.

Thus, the present invention has been described herein with reference toa particular embodiment for a particular application. Although selectedembodiments have been illustrated and described in detail, it may beunderstood that various substitutions and alterations are possible.Those having ordinary skill in the art and access to the presentteachings may recognize additional various substitutions and alterationsare also possible without departing from the spirit and scope of thepresent invention, and as defined by the following claims.

1. A system for allowing collaborative user tailoring of websites, thesystem comprising: a usage database; a tailoring database; at least twoclient devices for a plurality of users each checking if a user hasselected an existing tailored version of a website and, if the user hasselected the existing tailored version of the website, then loadingdesign elements of the existing tailored version of the website from thetailoring database to form the selected existing tailored version of thewebsite and, otherwise, creating a tailored version of the website byloading a set of default tailoring design elements from the tailoringdatabase to form the created tailored version of the website; the atleast two client devices each modifying a functional organization of theuser's version of the website through one of a plurality of selectableoptions, comprising a thumbnail view, and a complete list displayed on agraphical user interface of the corresponding client device, each of thetwo client devices modifying a function of at least one page of thewebsite, forming another tailored version of the website, wherein the atleast two client devices are each further creating a version of thewebsite by permitting a user to define and modify web pages andportlets, where portlets are Web-based design elements that request,receive, and display specialized information on the website, wherein thetailoring database stores the another tailored version of the website,wherein each of the at least two client devices permits the user toselectively publish the another tailored version of the website, makingthe another tailored version of the website available to other users;for a plurality of site users, the at least two client devices eachsaving the tailored version of the website thus created or modified inthe tailoring database; for the plurality of site users, the at leasttwo client devices each accessing and making use of the tailored versionof the website thus saved; wherein various tailored versions of thewebsite which have been saved and made available are announced; wheremultiple tailored versions of the website are available; wherein atleast one of the multiple tailored versions is a version of the websitecustomized through an incorporation of functional elements throughcollaboration by the plurality of users, wherein information regardinguser evaluations and ratings of the tailored versions are stored in theusage database, wherein each of the at least two client devices, afterthe user selects a tailored version, presents a plurality of websiteimplementation options to a user on a graphical user interface of aclient device, wherein the plurality of website implementation optionscomprises at least one filter, a thumbnail view, and a complete listdisplayed on a graphical user interface and permits modification of thetailored database; wherein the tailoring database saves the modifiedimplemented selected tailored version of the website as one of theplurality of tailored versions; wherein the at least one filter is basedon one of user ratings of the tailored versions of the website, pastuser modifications, and user selected criteria.
 2. A system as in claim1, further comprising the at least two client devices creating ormodifying at least one design element which is used within pages whencreating the tailored versions of the website, to save the at least onedesign element thus created or modified, and to access and make use ofthe at least one design element thus saved in the creation or modifyingof tailored versions of the website.
 3. A system as in claim 1, whereinthe at least two client devices each selects, in correspondence to atleast one particular user of the website, a particular subset of thetailored versions of the website thus saved.
 4. A system as in claim 3,wherein the at least two client devices each selects, in correspondenceto at least that particular user of the website, the tailored versionsof the website contained in that selected subset.
 5. A system as inclaim 4 where the subset of tailored versions recommended to thatparticular user or users is selected by the usage database responsive toa recorded usage pattern of that particular user.
 6. A system as inclaim 4 where the subset of tailored versions recommended to thatparticular user is selected by the usage database responsive to a userprofile as stored in the system.
 7. A systems as in claim 1, wherein aplurality of site users pay a fee for access to at least one of createand modify tailored versions of the website.
 8. A system as in claim 1,wherein creating and modifying tailored versions of the website areavailable only to a website's user who is in a premium subset of users.9. A system as in claim 1, wherein individual one of the plurality ofusers who at least one of create and modify tailored versions of thewebsite receive compensation.
 10. A system as in claim 1 wherein usersassign textual tags to selected ones of the tailored versions.
 11. Asystem as in claim 1, wherein an author of a tailored version of thewebsite is permitted to assign a version mark according to a user typefor that author's tailored version of the website.
 12. A system as inclaim 11, wherein the user type is one of skill level, personal style,cognitive style, and sensory capabilities.
 13. A system as in claim 11,the version mark is combinable with user entered information, processordetermined usage patterns of a user, and self-descriptions entered intouser profiles.